Wayne Thiebaud is one of my favorite artists to share with students. They immediately connect with his bright colors and playful subject matter. Fourth graders have been working on a painted paper collage project inspired by the work of Wayne Thiebaud.

The first class, students had a "painted paper factory." Students created sheets of paper filled with a color and texture to use in the upcoming project. We brushed up on our understanding of color mixing and played with adding texture with brush strokes. 

The following week we looked at many examples of Thiebaud's work. We noticed how his paintings included food and had simple backgrounds. The students thought this was probably because he wanted you to look at the food without getting distracted. We also had a number of ideas about why a person would make pictures of food. Fourth grade artists were then given their assignment-- to create a picture of food with collage using the paper they had created during the previous class. Students were reminded to look for textures and colors that would suit the foods they were depicting.

The artists had fantastic ideas for foods to create. We also discussed how we should think about our composition, just as we had with our abstract drawings. Students tried out different compositions before gluing down their final pieces.